The article entitled “ACLU Calls for Immediate Resignation of Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Thorough Federal Investigation” published online by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) proffered pertinent issues relative to alleged abuse, brutality, violence and violations to human rights reportedly perpetuated by the deputies of Sheriff Lee Baca to the inmates of the Los Angeles County Jail. As noted, accounts from eyewitnesses, chaplains, and even testimonies from inmates revealed that a culture of violence has been constantly applied to the inmates by the sheriff’s deputies who allegedly allow, inflict, and even encourage “deputy-on-inmate assaults, deputy-instigated inmate-on-inmate assaults and the regular use of excessive force inside the jail” (ACLU Calls for Immediate Resignation par. 3). As a result, a formal report released by the ACLU was aimed to demand for the immediate resignation of Sheriff Baca and for “U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to order a full criminal and civil rights investigation into the allegations” (ACLU Calls for Immediate Resignation par. 3).
Likewise, a representative of the ACLU of Southern Californina, Peter Eliasberg, the legal director, has disclosed the need for immediate action given that the apparent abuse and continued perpetuated violence within the prison walls have continued and left unabated with prisoners unable to resist. The report apparently ensued as a result of receiving thousands of complaints from the inmates just from the previous year which included narrative descriptions of the following: (1) severe attacks requiring subsequent multiple surgeries and sustaining deep physical and psychological injuries and trauma; (2) attacks being perpetuated by deputies as a group; and (3) deputies apparently ordering other inmates to deliver the abuse, attack, and perpetuate the violence (ACLU Calls for Immediate Resignation par. 7).
One was therefore aghast with the way the corrections and criminal justice system apparently disregard respect for human rights and exhibit wanton dismissal for the very justice that these law enforcement agencies are supposed to adhere and conform to. Immediate legal sanctions should therefore be instituted to determine the accuracy of the allegations through investigations to validate the accuracy of these complaints and eyewitnesses’ accounts. The disturbing account was the information revealed by a former NBI agent, Thomas Parker, who averred that these gross abuse and violence had existed as early as the 1970s and still continue with “impunity, right under the eyes of all levels of the current management of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department” (ACLU Calls for Immediate Resignation par. 11). This simply indicates that no legislative efforts or significant positive changes have been instutited to reform the abusive system despite authorities’ knowledge and awareness of brutalities that allegedly exist. If these correctional facilities continue to apply abuse and violence to the extent that inmates sustain physical, emotional and psychological damages; instead of opportunities for correction and realization of the mistakes that they have committed; then, the main purpose of putting these inmates in institutions like the Los Angeles County Jail definitely defies and fails to serve the purpose it ultimately was aimed to achieve.
Work Cited
"ACLU Calls for Immediate Resignation of Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Thorough Federal Investigation." 28 September 2011. Americal Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 25 November 2012
